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Amazom.com sold a book titled “Killer Elite” about the United States special operations team. The plaintiff picture was used on the cover of the book without his knowledge or consent. The plaintiff sued Amazon.com (and others) for a violation of his right of publicity, as well as invasion of privacy. Amazon.com filed a motion to dismiss.

On the intrusion upon seclusion claim, Amazon.com claimed that there was no seclusion, since the photograph was taken of him in a public location, namely, a combat zone. The court noted that:

“

[T]he place of the occurrence is relevant to a determination of the sufficiency of the evidence of intrusiveness, [but] it is not determinative of whether an intrusion into one's "solitude and seclusion" has occurred.

”

However, the court held that the plaintiff had not properly plead facts that would give rise to an intrusion into seclusion claim, and therefore, dismissed the claim.

On the false light claim, the court agreed with the plaintiff that the title of the book includes the word “killer” and he is not a killer, which could be considered a false statement. The court also felt that calling someone a killer would be highly offensive to a reasonable person. As such, the court denied Amazon.com’s motion as to the false light claim.